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British people spend more than six years of their entire lives worrying about various problems, from getting enough sleep to their weight, and even to the amount of phone battery they have left.

A new study reveals that people’s worst worries include fears over their personal appearance and needing to be at home to collect a parcel.

One in 10 people have admitted they spend seven hours or more worrying, while 36-year-olds were revealed to be the worst at staying stressed, which they spent on average three-and-a-half hours a day doing.

Losing sleep

But by the age of 44 and over people have learned to calm down, fretting for just one hour and 42 minutes a day.

The survey also highlighted how needless these worries tend to be, with people typically admitting that half of their concerns are totally out of their hands.

Not only do people worry about sleeping enough but they actually lose sleep from fretting over often trivial troubles. People typically lose four hours and 40 minutes each week – the equivalent of a lost night’s sleep every 12 days.

Tell-tale tics

Perhaps the less surprising stat is that more than half of people most often worry about their weight, while over a third are concerned by discoloured teeth and a similar number fret over looking tired.

Less rational is the fact that people typically start worrying about their phone battery dying when it reaches 31 per cent of capacity – but one in 20 is already vexed when there is still 85 per cent charge remaining.

Tell-tale ‘tics’ when someone is worrying include chewing finger nails (22 per cent), bouncing legs while seated (19 per cent), chewing the bottom lip (16 per cent) and playing with hair (14 per cent).

Unlikely therapists

Hairdressers are revealed as the nation’s unlikely therapists with almost one in five (21 per cent) having confided in their stylist, followed by bar staff (11 per cent).

The most common cures for our worries include listening to music, having a hug and that most British of ‘cures’ – a nice cup of tea.

The national worry audit of 2,000 British adults was commissioned by TV channel Dave to launch a new series, ‘Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier’ which sees the obsessive worrier and compulsive organiser attempt to analyse, assess and log every single one of his many worries.

It’s a bitter pill, but women are used to having their reproductive health trivialised

How I was liberated by Marie Kondo’s KonMari method

As Marie Kondo gets her own Netflix show, can she help me tidy up?

After 21 years of heavy drinking, I found joy in being sober

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